“Some people could make the argument that a lot of people like being in abusive relationships. It’s a love-hate relationship. It’s very, very common for people to stick around with somebody they love who also abuses him or her. Is the solution to those kind of dysfunctional relationships going to be more government, another law? I’d say no. People are always free to leave.”

During a debate on domestic violence prevention laws, NH State Representative and Free Stater Mark Warden (R-Goffstown) told fellow House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee members that a lot of people "like being in abusive relationships" and "are always free to leave".

Granite State Progress is calling on Rep. Warden to publicly apologize to victims of domestic violence and their families for these outrageous remarks. Executive Director Zandra Rice Hawkins: "Rep. Warden either has a complete lack of understanding about the very real and life-threatening situations that victims of domestic violence experience, or he is utterly cold. His belief that the victim is to blame is beyond comprehension. The year is 2013, not 1963."

For more on this and other issues, visit www.GraniteStateProgress.org

Those statements are so offensive to those of us who have been in abusive relationships that I have to choose my words carefully here. Most of what I want to say is unprintable.

He clearly has no concept of the power abusers can have over the abused, nor how much control they feel they have to exert for their own sick needs. It should be very obvious that nobody "likes" being abused, and it can be extremely difficult to extricate oneself from any relationship, let alone a dysfunctional one.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to find a way to lower the abrupt rise in my blood pressure.